Age Concern and Eon

Cardew

Ofgem are now probing the alleged deal between Eon and Age Concern to sell pensioners high priced energy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35488204

I started a thread nearly 11 years ago(23 March 2005) about a similar deal that Age Concern had with Powergen.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=38800&page=1&pp=10&highlight=pow ergen+concern

Age Concern and Powergen


Someone I know received a letter and brochure from Age Concern Energy Services explaining that Age Concern had teamed up with Powergen to provide a Gas and Electricity Package.

The letter and brochure were couched in terms that imply these are special prices that are only available for the elderly. There is a ‘package’ of additional benefits of bulbs, carbon monoxide detectors and a hypothermia thermometer as well as “2 hours free gas fire heating per day”.

The claimed savings were up to £78 per year.

Anyone who wishes to find out the exact details and tariff can ring the number Age Concern give out - 0800 015 2491. Powergen will answer.

On checking I found the tariffs to be some of the highest on the market(there are sufficient experts on this site to confirm my findings) and, as the Powergen operator conceded, considerably higher than other schemes Powergen themselves operate.

I wrote to Age Concern objecting to the wording of the literature which led the less well informed to believe that Age Concern had negotiated with Powergen an unbeatable deal for the elderly. The truth being that there are a host of cheaper schemes available.

The reply from Age Concern I consider to be one of most disingenuous I have seen from a Charity. A few extracts are:

]"The £78 savings are against British Gas quarterly cash/cheque unrestricted dual fuel tariff for 20,500kWh gas and 3,300kWh electricity. Savings include VAT and may vary according to payment method, region and consumption."

"The Cold Weather Payment for 2 extra hours of gas fire heating was (the princely sum of) £9.66 including VAT for the whole of 2004"

"At no time have we claimed that Age Concern Energy Services is the lowest price deal."

Perhaps most telling of all was the statement:

]"In addition, for every customer who switches to the Age Concern Energy Services scheme, Powergen will make an annual contribution to Age Concern to support our charitable work."

I for one am extremely disappointed that a respected charitable organisation would lend their name to a cynical marketing exercise by Powergen. I have no idea how much Powergen contribute to Age Concern’s coffers, but any monies surely come from the excess profits they make from the pensioners Age Concern are committed to help.

Hoof_Hearted

This is an absolute scandal and well done for raising something similar years ago. Old folks trust charities like this and it's a complete misuse of that trust. Basically, the charity is taking money from their client base under false pretences.

NittyGritty

really shameful


I bet the Eon reps will be giving this thread a wide berth today

footyguy

Interesting.

The BBC are simply reporting claims made in The Sun.

They also state:

Age UK has rejected the allegations, while E.On said its tariffs were competitively priced.

I wonder who Ofgem will eventually side with?

Will this eventually indicate The Sun as becoming a reliable source of information, or just further confirmation of the lies The Sun has previously been known to publish (i.e. over the Hillsborough disaster)?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

I honestly thought this was common knowledge. Certainly, the energy nerds on here knew that the AgeUK tariff was far from competitive. I've ranted in particular about the StayWarm tariff, which I think was also tied in with AgeUK.


Quite disappointed that it took the Sun newspaper to make this headline stuff!

NittyGritty

footyguy wrote: »

Interesting.

The BBC are simply reporting claims made in The Sun.

They also state:
I wonder who Ofgem will eventually side with?

Will this eventually indicate The Sun as becoming a reliable source of information, or just further confirmation of the lies The Sun has previously been known to publish (i.e. over the Hillsborough disaster)?

no need to take the suns word for it, just look at their tariffs, says it all

footyguy

As i understood it from AgeUK, they claimed they were targeting the elderly from moving away from expensive standard variable tariffs (that so many are languishing on) ... and that any saving is better than none.

Yes, we nerds all know that the Age UK tariff is probably not the cheapest ... but is cheaper than most/all standard variable tariffs.

I don't think AgeUK would have asked any pensioner to change from a cheap tariff to a more expensive tariff promoted by them.


But we'll have to see what Ofgem uncover in their investigation.

footyguy

Don't forget AgeUK are not alone in acting this way.

Many comparison sites, councils, other organisations offer collective switch tariffs that do not offer the best deals to consumers.
Only multi-millionaire MSE Martin appears to have the cojones (or money?) to stand up and say he would not put his name to any such collective tariff offered unless he could legitimately say it was cheapest (for most/the average user) i.e. that is why there is no PPM tariff offered in the MSE Big Switch 4.

And don't forget if he reaches the 100,000 limit cap just for the BG deal being promoted he is going to earn MSE £1.1million profit (i.e. after MSE costs & cashback offered to consumers)

But even MSE Martin says on his TV & radio appearences, it isn't necessarily about squeezing the last penny out of the best possible deal - anyone languishing on the standard variable should switch today as there are several £100s to be saved by the average consumer.

Cardew

My particular concern was the wording(in 2005) of the pamphlet, where it clearly implied it was a 'special' cheap deal they had negotiated for the elderly.

As a matter of interest, 'Age Concern' have become Age UK

In May 2008, Age Concern England and Help the Aged announced plans for the two charities to merge.[6] Following consultation, this was confirmed in September, when Dianne Jeffrey was confirmed as the new chairman of trustees.[7]

Tom Wright CBE, currently chief executive of VisitBritain, and Trustee of the Imperial War Museum was appointed Chief Executive of the new charity in November 2008.[8]

The merged charity, now known as Age UK was formed on 1 April 2009, and launched a major branding exercise in April 2010, featuring Brian Cox, Ian McKellen and Eleanor Bron in the charity's first television campaign.

footyguy

Cardew wrote: »

My particular concern was the wording(in 2005) of the pamphlet, where it clearly implied it was a 'special' cheap deal they had negotiated for the elderly.

As a matter of interest, 'Age Concern' have become Age UK

I can't remember what happened 10 years ago, but I thought I remember the Age UK tariff was a renamed eon tariff in recent times (but I might be wrong on that).

However looking at the offerings today, the Age UK tariffs appears to be 2 year fixed deals only (hence why they are more expensive than the cheapest possible available, which are typically 1 year deals, but cheaper than SVR tariffs) and they are 'special' as there is no comparative Eon tariff at the same price, and the AgeUK deals are exclusively for those aged over 60.

NittyGritty

the question should be why are Eon only offering more expensive tariff 2 year deals, why not a fixed 1 year deal (the cheapest) to the elderly for those over 60?


maybe a EON rep will come along to explain this, (altho I can see why they are leaving this thread alone today)